Digging implement



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l. T. BENNETT. DIG'GING IMPLEMBNT.

Patented Oct. 1'7, 1893.

2. t e e h S nu nu h s 2 1 mm Tm E Nn Nm EG BN ..1 Tw I D 1.. d 0 M o m No.. 506,900. Patented Oct. 17, 1893.

Umts@ STATES PATENT Ormea.

THOMAS BENNETT, OF KENOSI-IA, WISCONSIN.

DIGGING` IMPLEMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 506,900, dated October 17, 1893.

I Application iiledApril 17, 1893. Serial No. 470.681- (NO model-l To all whom it may con/cern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS BENNETT, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Kenosha, in the county of 4Kenosha and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Digging Implements, of which the following is a specification.

My invention vrelates tofan improvementJ which I have devised for a particular purpose, that is for loosening the soil (clay) when hardened by frost, to prepare it for being taken up by a scraper and fed to the so-called fire in burning clay to make ballast. My improved implement may also be used, with advantage, for other purposes, such as for chopping wood; but having been devised for the particular purpose mentioned and since its advantages are, perhaps, most pronounced in its application thereto, I confine the description of the use of the implement, in the explanation hereinafter contained, of my invention, mainly to the application of the implement in connection with ballast burning.

In burning clay to make ballast, andthe like, a Well-known and commonly practiced procedure is that of performing the burning in the open air in a long pile or lira sloping at the opposite sides. Generally stated, this procedure involves laying kindling material on, o'r along the margin of the bed of, clay, starting the fire, and thereafter piling thereon alternate layers of coal and clay. The clay is dug by machinery from the bed along a side of the line of the fire, thereby forming a trench, which is widened in the direction from the lire as the digging proceeds, and in which the pile or fire is increased in width by the accumulation of material imposed upon it. The machinery commonly employed forl digging the clay and depositing it on the fire involves, generally stated, a scraper suspended on and actuated by cableconnections with winding mechanism on a car on a track laid along the fire, between which and the track the scraper is caused to operate to dig and lill itself with the clay and then to convey its load to and dump it on the tire. When the ground is frozen, the scraper mechanism alone, even with the soil-loosening attachments usually provided on or to co-operate with the scraper, is incapable of loosening the soil; hence, until the advent of my improvement, the ballast burning procedure has had to be suspended or abandoned while the frozen condition of thegroundlasted; but my improvement has enabled the burning to be continued through all of the winter.

My improvement, which for want of a better nameI entitle a digging implement, involves a peculiar constructio'n of blade on an 6o adequately ponderous stem adapted to be supported, as at a side of the car hereinbefore referred to, to permit of its being reciprocated vertically in the manner of (but more rapidly than) a pile driver.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis a view showing in sectional end elevation ou a track, and rigged with means for operating it, my improved implement represented in side elevation in its raised position of opera- 7o tion. Figs. 2 and 3 are sections taken, respectively, at the lines 2 and 3 on Fig. 1 and viewed in the direction indicated by arrows. Fig. 4 is a broken view in front elevation of the implement in its guide. Fig. 5 is a simi- 75 lar View of the implement with its face removed; and Figs. 6 and 7 are sections taken, respectively, at the lines 6 and 7 on Fig. 4, viewed as indicated by arrows and enlarged.

The digging-implement comprises as its es- 8o sential features a blade A on a suitable handle or stem, the blade being formed with a iiat back o", pointed at its digging end toward which the sides should taper fromy the upper end; and a face q, bowed in cross-section, as 8 5 or substantially as represented in Figs. 6 and 7, and tapering Alongitudinally downward from its upper end, with relation to the back o", to which it is riveted along its edge-portions, all as, or substantially as, represented 9o in Fig. 4. Thus the purpose of the invention is attained of affording a blade (the parts of which should all be of metal) with a forward and upward bulging face, whereby when driven downward into the ground it will 95 tend, somewhat in the manner of a wedge, to prize the soil.

As I prefer to form the stem B, it comprises the two heavy metal bars p and p both riveted to the inner side of the back fr at a disloo tance apart to leave a longitudinal space o between them (Fig. 5) which is filled along ment in its reciprocating movements.

of the ground) and then dropped with such the back r by an extension p2 of the bar p bent upward for the purpose and to brace the bars, and fastened. The space o -adords a species of socket for an extension of the stem, comprising a bar n, which should be of metal, riveted in place between the bars p and p and to opposite sides of which are fastened further extensions of the stem, which afford the adequate weight to the implement, and. which I prefer to form of railway or analogous rails m fastened at their llanges to opposite sides of .the bar n, upward beyond which, however, the rails extend, 'being braced by` spacers Z, at intervals between them andthe heads of the rails form guides for the imple C `is a car shown on a track .(Fig. l) which may, for the purposes of the explanationo the operation of my implement in connection with ballast-burning, be presumed to .extend along a trench .(not shown) between the pile of burning ballast-and .the track. To support p the implement I provide suitable framefwork D carrying a mast E over the plane yat a sidei of the car .and formed of spaced beams 'L' havf ing vertical guide grooves `z" for the guidesI adorded by the heads of dthe rails m forming part of the implement-,stem B. rIhe Imast E is carried by a horizontally movable portion D ofthe frame Don which are Aracks h meshing with which are ystationarily supported Vpinions h on a rotary shaft h2, turning of` which in the proper direction ,aords forward and backward adjustment of the 'digger A with relation to theedge of thetrench, whereby ua rlesser or greater lateral depth .of the soil `ina-y "be penetrated by the implement according to desire or requirement. As will thus be seen, the implementis adapted to be raised for its operation (to a height which, for `the purpose, need not exceed eight .to twelve feet between the bladeA and surface force,owing to its weight,-as to penetrate fro- `zen orhard soil; and vit `loosens the soil, and, by its somewhat `wedge-shaped form, withthe l bulging sideiat the front of the penetrating point, as itwere bursts oit the frozensoi-l into the trench where it is free ,to be taken up by the lscraper.

The mechanism for actuating the implement may involve any of the well-known apparatus employed for analogous purposes; but as such mechanism forms no part of my i11- vention and as simpler means will answer my purpose of illustration I show merely a winding-drum F in the car, and a cable g passing from the drum upward over a guide-pulley g .on the mast E and then down to a desired point on the stem B to which it is attached, as represented in Fig. 1. By turning the drum to wind the cable upon it, the implement may be raised to a desired height from which, .on releasing-.the .drum to permit it to unwind the cable, it falls and performs its work.

As another f u notion which I have performed with advantage by ,thenseof my improved-implement in the ballastfburning connection referred to, maybe ,mentioned that of splitting ties and timbers formalrling the lindling wood v'for use in building the fire, which .operation I have thus been .enabled .to .perform expeditiously, yconveniently and,cheaply What I .claim as new, Fand desire to lsecure by Letters -Patent, isf

d 1. Adiggingimplementcomprising,.in combination, ,a blade A formed with a dat backplate 9 and ,a tace q bowed .in cross-section and tapering downward .toward the .cutting end of theback-,platetowhieh itis secured, an`d astem B fornredoj the barspandpfastened t0 the back-plate@ ador@ a Spawn, with 011.9 of said bars ben-t ,into -,said space, a ,barn fastened ,in Lthespace o Aand rails m fastened to .oppositesidesof vthe rbar n `#Mild .foaming guides forthe stem,.substantial lyas described.

`2,. In combination, a.cara Yguidevi-mast supported lon frame-werkadj ustably fastenedon theroof .of the car and' provided .with rack and pinion mechanism 4for moving it, adigging implement .comprisingma-.weighted blade kA and a stem B, the fstem .working in the guides o n the mast,.and means on ,thecar for Treciprocating the said implement, substanltially as described.

M. J. FROST, W.. N. WILLIAMS.- 

